JUNIN: A GREAT LAKE IN DANGER

The sun rises over the snow-covered mountains and throws its still pale light down onto the vast extension of the Bombon plateau. The ichu appears to stretch and sway to the gentle rhythm of the icy breeze which blows across the high Andes. A new day dawns in the solitude of the highlands. On the banks of the great blue lake some men are marching across the pasture towards a clump of totora reeds. They are clad in sheepskins and thick alpaca clothes. They are carrying poles and baskets woven from vegetable fiber. Among the dense vegetation they are up to their waists in icy water, in search of fresh eggs and meat. They are looking for food for their families. Their presence frightens the birds, which rise up in a squawking cloud: hundreds of ducks and flamingoes, pink parihuanas and white Andean geese or huallatas. Chocas and gallaretas splash noisily as the flee, almost running over the surface of the water. Meanwhile small animals scatter amongst the tangled vegetation: they are poroncoyes, a wild version of the domestic guinea pig.

After an hour the men return loaded down with provisions: dozens of eggs and birds, some ducks and gallaretas, frogs and guinea pigs. They also have tender totora shoots and lots of fish which they will roast together with the meat they have collected. These people are the pumpus, the ancestral inhabitants of the shores of lake Junin. They lived near the lake taking advantage of the abundance resources that nature provided. They shared this vast territory with great flocks of vicuña and alpaca, foxes, guinea pigs and thousands of birds. Andean cats, also called osjo or chinchay, natural predators of the highland rodents, gave their name to the great lake: Chinchaycocha, or the lake of the wild cats.

Eight centuries later, the same scenes are repeated but with dramatic variations: this time only a handful of men enter the water. They are in no hurry, as if reluctant across a desert landscape across which the wind blows unceasingly. Dust covers everything, as if trying to tear out the last clumps of ichu. They are dressed in torn pants and rough sandals, they clothes are almost rags. They are carrying a large eucalyptus pole and a polyethylene bag. The great lake is no longer blue. It has turned a reddish color and its banks are covered with scum and strange waste. The totora, once abundant everywhere is now scarce and grows in clumps scattered across the shallows.

From the grass they take some fragile canoes made from pieces of aluminum. Standing in these boats they paddle through the algae into the deeper water. There are no more birds, neither singing nor shrieking as they take flight. Only a silence that the wind accentuates depressingly.

They return at dusk. All day working and all they have is a pair of emaciated frogs and a few small fish. One of these men is Francisco Tueros Aldana, fisherman and ”frog catcher” from the village of Ondores on the southern shore of lake Junin. He tells us that the situation is getting worse, that now there are no fish, that the frogs –once abundant– are ever more difficult to find. At his humble house his family welcome us with the characteristic warmth of country people. With great generosity they share what little they have and we talk of the great lake’s past and future.

-"Before, when my father was here a couple of hours was all that was needed to collect several dozen frogs which weighed up to five and a half pounds. We used to sell them in the markets at Junin and Huayre. Now, you have to spend a whole day in the lake just to get maybe two and they don’t even weigh ten ounces."

Tueros continues: "The problem is the pollution. The fish are dying and the birds and frogs have nothing to eat. Even the algae die off and float on the surface so the light can’t get through. Then they start to decompose..."

The origin of the problem

In 1955 a hydroelectric power plant was built at Shongunmarca, which used the waters of the river San Juan, close to Ondores. As the demand for water from the power station has increased, it has made use of water from the lake, reducing its level by up to ten feet over the last few years. In addition to creating greater competition for habitat between the various species of birds in the area and provoking a reduction in food and nesting places, this has unbalanced the normal cycle of flooding and drying out, both of which are vital to the ecology of the lakes aquatic life.

Furthermore, in Cerro de Pasco the proposed sedimentation tanks for mine tailings were never built and the tailings are discharged directly into the river San Juan where, for 70 years they have flowed into the river Mantaro and thus to the Amazon basin. Paradoxically, after the building of a dam at Upamayo, the mine tailings have begun to flow (by ‘reverse flow’) into lake Junin, causing widespread destruction of the ecosystem. The volume of these tailings has increased progressively, affecting an ever greater area of the lake towards the south, causing a rapid deterioration of the environment.

One species: one drama

One of the most representative of the lake’s species is the Junin flightless grebe (Podiceps taczanowskii). Similar to a small duck, but slender and with a narrow pointed beak, it feeds on small fish caught by diving in the icy depths of the lake. This bird is a native of Peru and is found nowhere but the area around lake Chinchaycocha.

Because of the abundance of resources available, the flightless grebe evolved to adapt to the cold water of the lake. It did not need to migrate for the Winter and ate small insects when fish were scarce. Today its tragedy is precisely that it cannot fly. Trapped in a habitat damaged by pollution the flightless grebe began to fall victim to the poison and lack of nesting places. The fish, its most common food have almost died out. Finally, the population fell to a critical level and it is considered one of the most endangered species in the entire world.

In 1976, the work of Danish ornithologist Jon Fjeldsá sounded the alarm: there were only 300 individuals left. In 1985 a new census produced even lower numbers: this time an average of only three birds were sighted in just over half a mile of lake shore. Finally, in 1991 a team of Peruvian researchers carried out an emergency study on the grebe population. The results were shocking and alarming: fewer than 50 Junin flightless grebes remained and the populations of other aquatic birds of the area had also fallen dramatically.

The figures from fifteen or twenty years ago, when there were more than a million birds on the lake now seem incredible. Nevertheless, the future of the flightless grebe is not entirely pessimistic. The mining companies appear to be determined to solve the problem of contamination; and INRENA (the Peruvian Natural Resources Institute) is again managing the Lake Junin National Reserve, setting aside small sums of money for its conservation. In parallel, recent information shows that the ecosystem is improving slowly but constantly. During the last rainy season in the highlands, which saw heavier rain than in previous years, juvenile Junin flightless grebes were seen, indicating that the bird is still breeding successfully. The question is... Can it recover?

The Outcome

Even though the damage produced is enormous, it may not be irreversible, and wildlife (fish, mammals and birds), once abundant and vigorous, will probably return to the totora beds and waters of the great lake. Mining waste must be processed and deposited where it cannot damage such an important ecosystem as that of the lake and its inhabitants; the hydroelectric plant should regulate the variations in the lake’s level in co-ordination with scientists and specialists in order to prevent further catastrophes in the reproduction of certain species and a dam should be built to prevent contaminated water entering the lake. The future is in our hands.

The life of lake Junin will depend on what we do or allow to be done in the immediate future. We must not wait for a disaster to occur.

Junin National Reserve

Established in 1974 and covering an area of 131,000 acres in the districts of Carhuamayo, Ondores, Junin, Ninacaca and Vicco, the Reserve protects the second largest lake in the Peruvian Andes. It was created in order to protect the flora, fauna and landscape of lake Junin, as well as to encourage the rational use of birds, frogs and totora.

The lake is a very important ecosystem for the aquatic birds of the high Andes. Around 50 species, both resident and migratory, have been recorded in this area. The most frequently observed mammal is the wild guinea pig or poroncoy (Cavia tschudii), which lives among the reeds and on the rocky banks of the lake. The Andean fox or atoj (Pseudalopex culpaeus), the
hog-nosed skunk or añás (Conepatus chinga) and the vizcacha (Lagidium peruavinum) are also common.

The lake has populations of frog of the genus Batrachophrynus, (B. macrostomus and B. brachydactylus) highly prized in the Andes for their meat. Certain Andean frog species are also common, such as Gastrotheca peruana, Pleuroderma marmorata and the common toad (Bufo spinolosus). Among the fish, several species of the genus Orestias, known locally as challhuas, and a species of catfish (Pigydium oroyae) caught for food in the area.

The lake and its adjacent areas include a variety of emerging and submerged plants that form unique botanical units. The predominant vegetation consists of grasses in clumps or ‘champas’, such as reed grass Calamagrostis spp.), ichu (Festuca sp . and Stipa sp.) and totora (Scirpus totora and Juncus andicola).